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DOWLISH WAKE CPST31SEDOWLISH WAKE VILLAGE2/29Church of St Andrew

DOWLISH WAKE CP
ST31SE
DOWLISH WAKE VILLAGE
2/29 Church of St Andrew
4.2.58
GV II*
Anglican parish church. Fragment of chancel C13, tower early C14, some C15 work. Mostly rebuilt 1861-62, B.Ferrey
Architect. H.Davis of Taunton builder. Ham stone cut and squared, ashlar dressings: Welsh slate roof between stepped
cooed gables. Five-cell plan of single-bay chancel, crossing with tower; 2-bay north-east (Smoke) chapel, 3-bay nave
and north aisle, with south porch and north east vestry, Chancel, mostly C19, has chamfered plinth; eaves course and
angled corner buttresses: east window 3-light with Seometric style tracery, and south window 2-light to.match, both
with labels and leaf-with-bird stop ends; in south-west corner a moulded pointed-arched doorway. The Speke Chapel has
some early C15 work, but the east wall partly rebuilt; plinth, eaves course;, angled corner and bay buttresses; windows
3-light to east and 2-light to the two north bays, all with C15 style tracery set in hollowed recesses: C19 matching
vestry projects from west bay, its north gable having a C14 style traceried 2-light window with label, and a
flat-arched doorway in the east wall. North side aisle a late C19 rebuild of C15 work, with plinth, string course and
plain parapet, angled corner and bay buttresses; 3-light segmental-arched windows in shallow recesses with almost
art-nouveau tracery; the west window a 3-light with C15 style tracery and headstone label. Nave has angled corner and
bav buttresses; plinth and eaves course; 3-light C19 windows with C14 style tracery and headstop arched labels in south
wall; the west window also CI9; 4-light with Curvilinear tracery with bird-and-leaf stop label, under which is a
blocked moulded pointed-arched doorway. South porch C14, but largely rebuilt; plinth; angled corner buttresses, with
moulded pointed pointed outer arch, label and over-label scroll lettered 'surely the Lord is in this place', and in
gable a small figure of St Andrew in an arched recess, inner door more elaborately moulded, with another St Andrew
figure in recess over. Tower in 3 stages, with plinth and north-south corner buttresses, string courses, tripled above
stage one, and battleaented parapet, with hexagonal plan stair turret to north-east corner slightly higher than
remainder of tower: the south face of stage 1 has a 3-light C15 style window with label; stage 2 has a cusped lancet on
north side and a 2-light plate tracery window to west, both of these repeated in stage 3; south lace has a clock dial
stage 2, and stage 3 south and stages 2 and 3 east faces have 2-light C14/C15 style windows without labels. interior
essentially C19, with open timber roofs and plastered walls; chancel has a C19 painted reredos: the crossing has tall
C13 or early C14 double-chamfer arches with moulded caps, otherwise the main fabric apparently Cl9. In the Speke chapel
is a C11 or C12 font, tub pattern with arcaded sides, from the church of West Dowlish, demolished by l575; between this
chapel and the chancel a somewhat restored table tomb with effigies of Joane (nee Keynes) and John Speke, died 1442; in
north wall of chapel a marble and stone monument with life-size bust of John Hanninq Speke, the discoverer of the
source of the River Nile, died l864; and in a trefoil cusped recess west of this an effigy of Isabel Wake, died 1359:
also a brass to George Speke, died 1528, "builder of this part of the church'. Remaining fittings C19, but in the south
wall of nave a fine C15 canopied statue niche, presumably removed and reset, with a C20 St Andrew statue. A photograph
taken before the restoration, in the north chapel, shows that little was left unaltered, except parts of the tower.
First recorded rector 1313. (VCH Somerset, Vol IV, l978, ppl54-156; Pevsner, N, Buildings of England, South and West
Somerset, l958).